Traffic management in a network switching system with remote physical ports

ABSTRACT

In a switching system that comprises a central switching device an at least one port extender device, the central switching device includes at least one port configured to interface with the port extender device, and the port extender device includes a plurality of front ports for interfacing with one or more networks. The central switching device includes a processor that processes packets received from the at least one port extender device, and a plurality of egress queues for storing processed packets that are to be forwarded to the at least one port extender device for transmission via ones of the front ports. The central switching device also includes a flow control processor configured to, responsively to flow control messages received from the at least one port extender device, control transmission of packets to the at least one port extender device to prevent overflow of egress queues of the port extender device.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/599,218 (now U.S. patent. No. 10,708,200), entitled “TrafficManagement in a Network Switching System with Remote Physical Ports,”filed on May 18, 2017, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 62/338,348, entitled “Inband Channelized FlowControl over Ethernet Links,” filed on May 18, 2016. Both applicationsreferenced above are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure relates generally to network devices such asnetwork switches, bridges, routers, etc., and more particularly, tomanaging traffic in network devices.

BACKGROUND

Network devices often employ various flow control mechanisms, forexample to reduce or eliminate loss of data units, such as packets, dueto congestion at the network devices. Some networking applicationsrequire processing and forwarding a high number of data units, such aspackets, communication frames, etc. The amount of packet traffic that anetwork device can handle is limited, in part, by the number of frontpanel ports, i.e., physical ports via which the network device isconnected to other devices or networks. In some such networkingapplication, cascading of network devices is used to increase a numberof front ports available to a centralized network device. In suchnetworking applications, it is important to efficiently control flow ofpackets between the centralized network device and the cascaded networkdevices.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, a port extender device comprises: a plurality of frontports configured to interface with a network; at least one uplink portfor interfacing with a central switch device; a forwarding processorconfigured to forward packets, received via ones of the front ports, toa central switch device for processing of the packet by the centralswitch device; a plurality of egress queues for queueing packetsprocessed by the central switch device and to be transmitted via thefront ports of the port extender device, respective egress queues, amongthe plurality of egress queues, having a queue depth that is less than aqueue depth of corresponding respective egress queues in the centralswitching device; and a flow control processor configured to selectivelygenerate a flow control message indicative of congestion in a particularegress queue among the plurality of egress queues of the port extenderdevice; and cause the flow control message to be transmitted to thecentral switch device to control transmission of packets from thecentral switching device to the particular egress queue of the portextender device.

In another embodiment, a method for controlling transmission of packetsto a port extender device includes: receiving, at the port extenderdevice from a central switching device, packets that are processed bythe central switching device, the packets being for transmission viaones of front ports disposed in the port extender device; queueing, inthe port extender device, the packets received from the centralswitching device in ones of a plurality of egress queues of the portextender device, respective one or more egress queues corresponding torespective front ports of the port extender device, respective egressqueues among the plurality of egress queues having a queue depth that isless than a queue depth of corresponding respective egress queues in thecentral switching device; selectively generating a flow control messageindicative of congestion in a particular egress queue of the pluralityof egress queues of the port extender device; and causing the flowcontrol message to be transmitted to the central switch device tocontrol transmission of packets form the central switching device to theparticular egress queue of the port extender device.

In yet another embodiment, a central switching device comprises: atleast one port configured to interface with a port extender device, theport extender device comprising a plurality of front ports forinterfacing with a network; a packet processor configured to processpackets received from the at least one port extender device, the packetshaving been received by the at least one port extender device via onesof the plurality of front ports of the at least one port extenderdevice; a plurality of egress queues for storing processed packets to beforwarded to the at least one port extender device for transmission ofthe processed packets via ones of the plurality of front ports of the atleast one port extender device, respective ones of the egress queuehaving a queue depth that is greater than a queue depth of correspondingrespective egress queues disposed in the port extender device; and aflow control processor configured to, responsively to a flow controlmessage received from the port extender device, control transmission ofpackets to the port extender device from a particular one of the egressqueues of the central switch device to prevent overflow of an egressqueue of the port extender device corresponding to the particular one ofthe egress queues of the central switching device.

In still another embodiment, a method for controlling transmission ofpackets from a central switching device includes: receiving, by thecentral switch device from at least one port extender device coupled tothe central switching device, packets received by the at least one portextender device via ones of a plurality of front ports of the at leastone port extender device; processing, by a packet processor of thecentral switching device, the packets received from the at least oneport extender device; queueing, by the packet processor, the processedpackets in a plurality of egress queues of the central switching device,the egress queues of egress queues of the central switchingcorresponding to egress queues of the at least one port extender device,respective ones of the egress queue of the central switching devicehaving a queue depth that is greater than a queue depth of correspondingrespective egress queues of the at least one port extender device; andcontrolling, by a flow control processor of the central switching deviceresponsively to a flow control message received from a port extenderdevice of the at least one port extender devices, transmission ofpackets from a particular one of the egress queues of the central switchdevice to prevent overflow of a corresponding egress queue in the portextender device.

In yet another embodiment, a port extender device comprises: a pluralityof front ports for interfacing with a network; at least one uplink portfor interfacing with a central switch device; a forwarding processorconfigured to forward packets, received via ones of the front ports, toa central switch device for processing of the packet by the centralswitch device; and a flow control processor configured to receive afirst flow control message from the central switching device, the firstflow control message indicating congestion in a particular virtualchannel of a plurality of virtual channels between the central switchingdevice and the port extender device, the first flow control messagecorresponding to a first flow control protocol that supports a firstnumber of channels, generate, based on the first flow control message, asecond flow control message conforming to a second flow controlprotocol, the second flow control protocol supporting a second number ofchannels smaller than the first number of channels, and transmit thesecond flow control message via one or more front ports of the pluralityof front ports to control transmission of packets, corresponding to theparticular virtual channel, to the port extender device.

In still another embodiment, a method of flow control includes:receiving, by a flow control engine of a port extender device, a firstflow control message from a central switching device, the first flowcontrol message indicating congestion in a particular virtual channel ofa plurality of virtual channels between the central switching device andthe port extender device, the first flow control message correspondingto a first flow control protocol that supports a first number ofchannels; generating, by the flow control engine, based on the firstflow control message, a second flow control message conforming to asecond flow control protocol, the second flow control protocolsupporting a second number of channels smaller than the first number ofchannels; and causing, by the flow control engine, the second flowcontrol message to be transmitted via one or more front port of theplurality of front ports to control transmission of packets,corresponding to the particular virtual channel, to the port extenderdevice.

In still another embodiment, a switching system comprises: one or moreport extender devices, respective port extender devices comprising aplurality of front ports interfacing to a computer network, and aplurality of first queues, respective subsets of the plurality of firstqueues corresponding to respective front ports of the plurality of frontports; and a switching device coupled to the at least one port extenderdevice and configured to process packets received via ones of the frontports of the port extender device at least to determine other ones ofthe front ports of a first port extender device, or ones of front portsof a second port extender device, via which to transmit the packets, theswitching device comprising a plurality of second queues, respectivesecond queues of the switching device corresponding to respective firstqueues of the port extender device, wherein a buffer depth of the secondqueues at the switching device is greater than a buffer of correspondingfirst queues at the port extender device; and a flow control processorconfigured to selectively control a transmission of packets from ones ofthe second queues of the switching device to corresponding ones of thefirst queues of the one or more port extender devices to prevent anoverflow of packets at the corresponding first queues of the portextender device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example switching system that includesone or more port extender devices and a central switching device,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example switching system that includesone or more port extender devices and multiple central switchingdevices, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a port extender device used with the systemof FIG. 1 or the system of FIG. 2, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a central switching device used with thesystem of FIG. 1 or the system of FIG. 2, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method for controllingtransmission of packets transmitted to a port extender device, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method for controllingtransmission of packets transmitted from a central switching device,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example method for controllingtransmission of packets corresponding to a particular virtual channel ofa plurality of virtual channels between a central switching device and aport extender device, according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are described herein in the context of flow control in aswitching system that includes centralized switching device and portextender devices. It is noted however, in light of the disclosure andteachings herein, that similar methods and apparatus for flow controlcan be employed in other suitable and devices configured to operate in acomputer network. As just an example, channelized flow control over astandard Ethernet link is described below in the context of channelizedflow control over a standard Ethernet link between a centralizedswitching device and a port extender device. However, similar methodsand apparatus for channelized flow control over a standard Ethernet linkcan be employed in other general network architectures. In general, thedescribed flow control methodologies are not limited to use for flowcontrol between centralized switching devices and port extender devices,but rather may be utilized in other suitable network architectures aswell.

In various embodiments described herein, a network switching systemincludes one or more port extender devices coupled to ports of one ormore central switching devices. The one or more port extender devicesinclude front physical ports configured to interface with a computernetwork, in an embodiment. In an embodiment, a port extender device thatincludes a plurality of physical front ports is coupled to the centralswitching device via a number of downlink physical ports of the centralswitching device that is less than the number of physical front ports ofthe port extender device. As just an example, a port extender devicethat includes eight physical front ports is coupled to a centralswitching device via only one or two downlink physical ports of thecentral switching device, thereby extending a number of physical frontports available to the central switching device to interface with acomputer network, in an embodiment. The one or more port extenderdevices are relatively passive low cost devices having reduced packetprocessing and egress buffering capabilities, compared to the centralswitching device, in an embodiment. For example, the one or more portextender devices generally pass packets received via physical frontports of the port extender devices to the central switching devicewithout processing of the packet, or with minimal processing of thepackets, by the port extender device. The central switching deviceprocesses packets received from the one or more port extender devices atleast to make forwarding decisions for the packets received from the oneor more port extender devices to determine one or more physical frontports of the one or more port extender devices via which the packet isto be transmitted. In an embodiment, the central switching devicedetermines a downlink port of the central switching device via which thepacket is to be transmitted so that the packet is forwarded to aparticular port extender device, and also determines a physical frontport or physical front ports of the particular port extender device viawhich the packet is to be transmitted. In some embodiments, theprocessing of a packet by the central switching device also includesperforming other processing operations such as determining a flow towhich the packet corresponds, determining a priority of the flow towhich the packet corresponds, determining whether the packet is aunicast packet or a multicast packet, performing packet replication ifthe packet is a multicast packet, determining whether the packet shouldbe dropped, determining whether the packet should be mirrored forfurther analysis, etc. In an embodiment, upon completion of processingof a packet by the central switching device, the central switchingdevice provides the processed packet to one or more port extenderdevices that include the one or more physical front ports via which thepacket is to be transmitted, for subsequent transmission of the packetvia the one or more determined physical front ports.

In an embodiment, each of the one or more port extender devicesmaintains egress queues for queuing packets that the port extenderdevice receives from the central switching device for subsequenttransmission of the packets from the port extender device. In anembodiment, each of the one or more port extender devices maintains arespective set of egress queues for each front port of the port extenderdevice, with respective egress queues in the set of egress queuescorresponding to respective priorities (e.g., supported by the portextender device. In an embodiment, to efficiently manage flow of packetsfrom the central switching device to the one or more port extenderdevices, the central switching device maintains egress queues to queueprocessed packets that are destined to the one or more port extenderdevices but are not yet scheduled to be dequeued from the egress queuesand forwarded to ones of the one or more port extender devices, orcannot be immediately forwarded to the ones of the one or more portextender devices for example due to congestion in egress queues in theone or more port extender devices. In an embodiment, the centralswitching device maintains a number of egress queues that corresponds tothe number of egress queues in the one or more port extender devices.Thus, in an embodiment, the number of egress queues maintained by thecentral switching device generally exceeds the number of physicaldownlink ports of the central switching device. Maintaining the largenumber of egress queues at the central switching device essentiallycreates a large number of virtual channels for transmission of packetsfrom the central switching device to the one or more port extenderdevices via a relatively smaller number of downlink ports of the centralswitching device, in an embodiment.

In an embodiment, respective egress queues in a port extender devicehave corresponding respective egress queues in the central switchingdevice. In an embodiment, respective egress queues in the centralswitching device have a queue depth that is significantly deeper thancorresponding respective egress queues in the port extender device. Therespective egress queues in the central switching device serves asextensions of the corresponding respective queues in a port extenderdevice. Maintaining relatively shallow egress queues in the portextender devices reduces amount of buffer space needed for the egressqueues in a port extender device, thereby reducing power consumption andcost of the port extender device and/or increasing a number of physicalfront ports that can be supported in the port extender device, in atleast some embodiments. As such, because, in an embodiment, becauseegress queueing is handled mainly by the deeper egress queues of thecentral switching device and the port extender devices are provided withminimal egress queuing capabilities and reduced cost, additionadditional physical front ports to the switching system is accomplishedat a low cost by addition of one or more low cost port extender devices,in various embodiments.

In an embodiment, the one or more port extender devices and the centralswitching device implement channelized flow control to mitigatesusceptibility of the relatively shallower egress queues in the portextender devices and/or to prevent overflow of the relatively shallowegress queues in the one or more port extender devices. In anembodiment, the channelized flow control allows for individual controlof transmission of packets from particular egress queues in the centralswitching device to the corresponding particular egress queues in theone or more port extender devices. Thus, for example, if a particularegress queue in a port extender device becomes congested, the portextender device indicates to the central switching device the particularegress queue that is congested, and the central switching devicecontrols transmission of packets, for example by pausing transmission ofpackets or reducing the rate of transmission of packets, from an egressqueue in the central switching device that corresponds to the particularegress queue in the port extender device without blocking or otherwisenegatively effecting transmission of packets from other egress queues inthe central switching device to the port extender device. For example,if an egress queue in the port extender device corresponding to acertain front physical port of the port extender device and a certainpriority is experiencing congestion, the port extender device indicatesthe congested egress queue to the central switching device and thecentral switching device blocks transmission of packets to the congestedegress queue without blocking transmission of packets to other egressqueues in the pot extender device corresponding to the same frontphysical port of the port extender device and other priorities, andwithout blocking transmission of packets to egress queues correspondingother front physical ports of the port extender device, therebypreventing fate sharing among the egress queues of the port extenderdevice, in an embodiment. For example, because transmission of packetsto non-congested egress queues in the port extender device is notnegatively affected (e.g., is not blocked) due to congestion in otherones of the egress queues in the port extender device, fate sharingamong ones of the egress queues in the port extender device is preventedbecause non-congested egress queue do not share fate with congestedegress queues, in an embodiment; Accordingly, the channelized flowcontrol of packets from the central switching device to the one or moreport extender devices, at times of congestion in particular ones of therelatively shallow egress queues in the one or more port extenderdevices, prevents overflow of the congested egress queues in the one ormore port extender device without blocking transmission of packets tonon-congested egress queues in the one or more port extender devices andpreventing fate sharing between different egress queues in the one ormore port extender devices, in at least some embodiments. Moreover, therelatively deeper egress queues in the central switching device reduceor eliminate dropping of packets to be transmitted via the physicalfront ports of the one or more port extender devices without the needfor additional buffer space for queueing the packets at the one or moreport extender devices, in an embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example switching system 100 configuredto implement various flow control techniques described herein, accordingto an embodiment. In an embodiment, the switching system 100 is part ofa data center, for example. In another embodiment, the switching system100 is a node of a computer network. The switching system 100 includesone or more port extender devices 102 coupled to a central switchingdevice 104. Each of the one or more port extender devices 102 includes aset of physical front ports 110 for coupling the port extender devices102 to networks, network devices on the networks, data center devicessuch as serves, storage devices, compute devices, etc., for example, inan embodiment. Each of the one or more port extender devices 102 alsoincludes one or more uplink ports 112 for coupling the port extenderdevice 102 to the central switching device 104. The central switchingdevice 104 includes one or more downlink ports 114 and one or moreuplink ports 116, in an embodiment. At least some of the downlink ports114 are coupled to uplink ports 112 of respective port extender devices102 via respective links 115, in an embodiment. In an embodiment, therespective links 115 conform to a standardized communication protocol.For example, in an embodiment, the respective links 115 are standardEthernet links. The one or more uplink ports 116 of the centralswitching device are coupled to other network devices, such as uplinknetwork devices (e.g., core switches) in the data center, for example.In an embodiment, the central switching device 104 is a relatively“active” switching device configured to process packets provided to thecentral switching device 104 by the port extender devices 102, while theport extender devices 102 are relatively “passive” devices thatgenerally do not perform processing of the packets, or perform minimalprocessing of the packets, and generally simply transfer packets betweenthe central switching device 104 and the physical front ports 110 of theport extender device. Thus, in an embodiment, the port extender devices102 merely provide port extension or port fan-out functionality for thedownlink ports 114 of the central switching device 104.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the port extender devices 102include respective forwarding processors 120, respective flow controlengines 122, and respective sets of egress queues 124. In general, aport extender device 102 (e.g., the port extender device 102-1) isconfigured to receive packets via front ports 110 of the port extenderdevice 102, and provide the packets to the forwarding processor 120(e.g., the forwarding processor 120-1) of the port extender device 102.In an embodiment, the forwarding processor 120 minimally processes areceived packet and forwards the minimally processed packet to thecentral switching device 104 for further processing of the packet. Theminimal processing performed by the forwarding processor 120 includesadding one or more tags to a header of the packet that will allow thecentral switching device 104 to determine via which one of the frontports 110 of the port extender device 102 the packet was received, forexample, in an embodiment.

The port extender device 102 is also configured to receive, via anuplink port 112 of the port extender device 102, packets processed bythe central switching device 104. In an embodiment, the port extenderdevice 102 is configured to transmit the packets processed by thecentral switching device 104 via ones of the ports 110 determined basedon processing of the packets by the central switching device 104. Inoperation, when the port extender device receives a processed packetfrom the central switching device 104, the forwarding processor 120 ofthe port extender device 102 places the packet in an egress queue 124corresponding to a front port 110 via which the packet is to betransmitted. In an embodiment, the egress queues 124 include a pluralityof subsets of egress queues 124, respective subsets of egress queues 124corresponding to respective front ports 110 of the port extender device.In an embodiment, each subset of egress queues 124 includes a pluralityof queues 124, with respective egress queues 124 of the subset of egressqueues 124 corresponding to respective priorities, such as quality ofservice (QoS) levels, supported by the port extender device 102. Thus,for example, in an embodiment in which the port extender device supportseight different priorities (e.g., eight different QoS levels), theegress queues 124 include multiple subsets of queues 124 respectivelycorresponding to the front ports 110, each particular subset of queues124 having eight queues 124 for queuing packets of different prioritiesto be transmitted via a particular port 110. In an embodiment, theforwarding processor 120 determines the front port 110 via which thepacket to be transmitted and a particular queue 124, corresponding tothe front port 110, into which to place the packet, based on one or moretags in a header of the packet. In an embodiment, prior to placing thepacket into the determined egress queue 124, the forwarding processor120 removes the one or more tags from the header of the packet.

In an embodiment, particular egress queues 124 may become congested insome circumstances, for example due to congestion on a link coupled to aport 110 to which a particular egress queue 124 corresponds, or atemporary suspension of transmission of packets from the particularegress queue 124 in response to a flow control message received from adownstream network device coupled to the 110 to which the egress queue124 corresponds. To mitigate congestion in particular ones of the queues124 without blocking packets destined to other ones of the egress queues124, the flow control engine 122 of the port extender device 102monitors congestion in the egress queues 124 and selectively generatesflow control messages to indicate congestion in particular ones of theegress queues 124. The flow control engine 122 causes the flow controlmessages to be transmitted to the central switching device 104 tocontrol transmission of packets destined to the particular egress queues124 from the central switching device 104, without negatively effectingtransmission of packets to non-congested egress queues 124, in anembodiment.

Turning now to the central switching device 104, in an embodiment, thecentral switching device 104 includes a packet processor 130, a flowcontrol engine 132 and a plurality of egress queues 134. The packetprocessor 130 of the central switching device 104 is configured toprocess packets received from the port extender devices 102 via theports 114 (or packet descriptors associated with packets received viathe ports 114), in an embodiment. In an embodiment, the packet processor130 is configured to process a packet received from a port extenderdevice 102 at least to make a forwarding decision for the packet todetermine one or more front ports 110 of the one or more port extenderdevices 102 via which the packet is to be transmitted. In an embodiment,the packet processor 130 is coupled to a forwarding database (not shown)that stores forwarding information (e.g., port information) associatedwith addresses (e.g., media access control (MAC) addresses, InternetProtocol (IP) addresses, etc.) and/or other suitable information. In anembodiment, the packet processor 130 is configured to utilizeinformation from a packet header to look up information in theforwarding database that indicates one or more front ports 110 to whichthe packet is to be forwarded. Based on the forwarding decision for thepacket, packet processor 130 enqueues the packet in one or more egressqueues 134 for subsequent transmission of the packet to one or more portextender devices 102 that include the front ports 110 determined fortransmission of the packet from the one or more port extender devices102.

In an embodiment, the egress queues 134 include respective sets ofegress queues 134 corresponding to respective downlink ports 114 of thecentral switching device 104. Respective sets of egress queues 134include respective subsets of egress queues 134 corresponding torespective front ports 110 of the port extender device 102 coupled tothe corresponding downlink port 114 of the central switching device 104,in an embodiment. In an embodiment, the respective subsets of egressqueues 134 include respective egress queues 134 corresponding torespective egress queues 124 of the port extender device 102 coupled tothe corresponding downlink port 114 of the central switching device 104.In an embodiment respective egress queues 134 of the port centralswitching device 104 correspond to respective egress queues 124 of theport extender devices 102. Accordingly, the central switching devicegenerally maintains, for a particular port 114, a number of egressqueues 134 that corresponds to the number of physical ports 110 of theport extender device 102 coupled to the particular port 114 multipliedby the number of different packet priorities supported by the switchingsystem 100, in an embodiment. Maintaining the egress queues at thecentral switching device essentially creates a large number of virtualchannels for transmission of packets from the central switching deviceto the port extender device coupled to a port 114 of the centralswitching device 104. In an embodiment, a “virtual channel” correspondsto a channel virtually created by corresponding egress queues in acentral switching device (e.g., the central switching device 104) andegress queues in a port extender device (e.g., port extender device)coupled to the central switching device. Thus, for example, a virtualchannel between the central switching device 104 and a port extenderdevice (e.g., the port extender device 102-1) corresponds to an egressqueue 134 in the central switching device and a corresponding egressqueue (e.g., a corresponding egress queue 124-1) in the port extenderdevice, in an embodiment.

In an embodiment, packets from the egress queues 134 are generallytransferred to the corresponding egress queues 124 of the port extenderdevices 102. In an embodiment, egress queues 134 of the centralswitching device have a queue depth that is greater than a queue depthof the corresponding egress queues 124 of the port extender devices. Forexample, the egress queues 134 are at least 25% deeper than thecorresponding egress queues 124, in an embodiment. As another example,the egress queues 134 are 50% deeper, 75% deeper, 90% deeper, etc., thanthe corresponding egress queues 124, in some embodiments. In otherembodiments, the egress queues 134 are deeper that the correspondingqueues 124 by other suitable amounts. In an embodiment, channelized flowcontrol between the port extender devices 102 and the central switchingdevice 104 is implemented to prevent overflow in the relativelyshallower egress queues 124 of the port extender devices 102 and/or tomitigate congestion in the egress queues 134 of the central switchingdevice 104.

In an embodiment, the flow control engine 132 of the central switchingdevice 104 is configured to receive a flow control message generated bya flow control engine 122 of a port extender device 102, the flowcontrol message indicating congestion in a particular egress queue 124of the port extender device 102, and responsive to the flow controlmessage, control transmission of packets from a corresponding egressqueue 308 of the central switching device 104 to prevent overflow of theparticular egress queue 124 in the port extender device 102. In anembodiment, the flow control engine 132 is also configured to detectcongestion in particular ones of the egress queues 134 of the centralswitching device 104, and to generate flow control messages indicatingcongestion in the particular ones of the egress queues 134 of thecentral switching device 104. The flow control messages indicatingcongestion in the particular ones of the egress queues 134 of thecentral switching device 104 are provided the port extender devices 102so that flow control can be propagated to downstream network devicescoupled to the port extender devices 102, in an embodiment. Propagatingflow control to downstream network devices coupled to the port extenderdevices 102 controls transmission of packets (e.g., packetscorresponding to particular priorities) to the port extender devices103, thereby reducing the number of packets (e.g., packets of particularpriorities) to be processed by the central switching device 104 andmitigating congestion in the particular egress queues 134 of the centralswitching device 104, in an embodiment.

In an embodiment, flow control messages transmitted from the centralswitching device 104 to a port extender devices 102, and vice versa, aretransmitted in-band with transmission of packets from the centralswitching device 104 to a port extender devices 102, and vice versa,over the same links 115 (e.g., Ethernet links) over which packets aretransmitted from the central switching device 104 to a port extenderdevices 102, and vice versa. In an embodiment, flow control messagestransmitted from the central switching device 104 to a port extenderdevices 102, and vice versa, generally conform to a first flow controlprotocol for in-band flow control (e.g., flow control over Ethernetlinks) that supports a relatively large number of virtual channelsneeded to enable individual flow control of packets from the relativelylarge number of egress queues 134 of the central switching device 104 tothe corresponding egress queues 124 of the port extender devices 102. Inan embodiment, the port extender devices 102 additionally support asecond flow control protocol for interacting with network devices thatare coupled to the ports 110 of the port extender devices 102. In anembodiment, the second flow control protocol is a channelizedper-priority flow control protocol that supports a relatively smallernumber of virtual channels corresponding to the number of priorities(e.g., QoS levels) supported by the port extender devices 102 and theswitching system 100. In an embodiment, the first flow control protocolis a quantized congestion notification (QCN) protocol or anothersuitable flow control protocol that supports a relatively large numberof channels. In an embodiment, the first flow control protocol is IEEE802.1Qau congestion notification message (CNM) flow control protocol. Inanother embodiment, the first flow control protocol is another suitableflow control protocol that supports a relatively large number ofchannels or connections. In an embodiment, the second flow controlprotocol is a priority flow control (PFC) protocol or another suitableflow control protocol that supports a relatively smaller number ofchannels. In an embodiment, the second flow control protocol is IEEE802.3x protocol that defines link-level flow control or the IEEE802.1Qbb protocol that defined priority-level flow control. In anotherembodiment, the second flow control protocol is another suitable flowcontrol protocol that supports a relatively smaller number of channels.

In an embodiment, the flow control engine 132 of the central switchingdevice 104 is configured to respond, to a flow control message receivedfrom a port extender device 102, in accordance with the second flowcontrol protocol even though the flow control message generally conformsto the first flow control protocol. For example, the second flow controlprotocol defines a flow control response that is more suitable forchannelized flow control of packets from the central switching device104 to the port extender devices 102 as compared to a flow controlresponse defined by the first flow control protocol. In an embodiment,the response according to the second flow control protocol requires someinformation that is not included in the flow control message thatconforms to the first flow control protocol. In an embodiment, the flowcontrol engine 132 determines the information not included in the flowcontrol message based on the information that is included in the flowcontrol message. As an example, in an embodiment, the first flow controlprotocol operates by indicating a fill level of a congested queue, andresponse to the flow control message according to the first flow controlprotocol involves modulating the rate of flow of packets destined forthe congested queue based on the fill level of the congested queue. Onthe other hand, a response to a flow control message in accordance withthe second flow control protocol involves, rather than modulating therate of flow of packets destined for the congested queue, pausingtransmission of packets destined for the congested queue for a certainamount of time. In this embodiment, the flow control engine 132determines, based on a fill level of a congestion egress queue 124indicated in a flow control message received from a port extender device102, an amount of time for which to pause transmission of packets to thecongested egress queue 124 of the port extender device 102, and pausestransmission of packets from a corresponding egress queue 134 of thecentral switching device 104 to the congested egress queue 124 of theport extender device 102 for the determined amount of time.

In an embodiment, a flow control engine 122 of a port extender device102 is configured to receive, from the central switching device 104, afirst flow control message that generally conforms to the first flowcontrol protocol, the flow control message indicating congestion in aparticular egress queue 134 of the central switching device 104, and toconvert the first flow control message to a second flow control messagethat generally conforms to the second flow control protocol. The secondflow control message is then transmitted via one or more of the frontports 110 to one or more network devices coupled to the one or morefront ports 110 to pause transmission of packets, associated with thepriority corresponding to the congested egress queue 134, from the oneor more network devices to mitigate congestion in the congested egressqueue 134. Similarly, in an embodiment, a flow control engine 122 of aport extender device 102 is configured to receive a first flow controlmessage received via a front port 110 of the port extender device 102from a network device coupled to the front port 110 of the port extenderdevice 102, the first flow control message generally conforming to thesecond flow control protocol and generally indicating an egress queue124 from which the port extender device 102 is to pause transmission ofpackets to the network device coupled to the front port 110 of the portextender device 102. The flow control engine 122 is configured toconvert the first flow control message to a second flow control messagegenerally conforming to the first flow control protocol, in anembodiment. The second flow control message is then transmitted from theport extender device 102 to the central switching device 104 to pausetransmission of packets destined to the egress queue 124 identified inthe first flow control message, in an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example switching system 200 thatincludes one or more port extender devices 202 and multiple centralswitching devices 204, according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, theport extender devices 202 are the same as or similar to the portextender devices 102 of FIG. 1. Similarly, the central switching devices204 are the same as or similar to the central switching device 104 ofFIG. 1, in an embodiment. In other embodiments, the port extenderdevices 202 are different from the port extender devices 101 of FIG. 1and/or the central switching devices 204 are different from the centralswitching device 104 of FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, each of the one or more port extender devices 202 iscoupled to one or more of the multiple central switching devices 204. Inthis configuration, the multiple central switching devices 204 provideresilience to the switching system 200 and/or improve performance of theswitching system 200, in various embodiments. For example, the multipleswitching devices 204 provide resilience to the switching system 200 byproviding for fail-over capability in which operation is switched overfrom a central switching device 204 to other one or more centralswitching devices 204 in case of a failure of the central switchingdevice 204, in an embodiment. As another example, multiple switchingdevices 204 improve performance by increasing the rate of processing ofpackets received by the port extender devices 204, in an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a port extender device 300, according to anembodiment. In an embodiment, the port extender device 300 correspondsto a port extender device 102 of FIG. 1 or a port extender device 202 ofFIG. 2. The port extender device 300 includes a plurality of front ports302 for coupling the extender device 302 to networks, network devicessuch as switches, routers, bridges, etc., endpoints such as servers,storage devices, etc., in a data center, etc. The port extender device300 also includes an uplink port 304 for coupling the port extenderdevice 300 to a central switching device. The port extender device 300is configured to receive packets via ones of the front ports 302 and toforward the received packets to a central switching device coupled tothe port extender device 300 via the port 304. The port extender device300 is further configured to receive, via the port 304, packetsprocessed by the central switching device coupled to the port extenderdevice 300, and to forward the packets to appropriate ones of the frontports 302 for transmission of the packets via the front ports 302.

In an embodiment, the port extender device 300 includes a forwardingprocessor 305, a queue buffer 306 and a flow control engine 307. Thequeue buffer 306 holds a plurality of egress queues 308 for queuingpackets to be transmitted via the front ports 302. In an embodiment, theegress queues 308 include a plurality of sets 310 of egress queues 308,respective sets 310 of egress queues 308 corresponding to respectivefront ports 302, in an embodiment. Each set 310 of egress queues 308includes a plurality of egress queues 308 respectively corresponding todifferent priorities supported by the port extender device 300. In theexample embodiment of FIG. 3, the port extender device 300 supports upto eight different priorities, and each set 310 of egress queues 308includes up to eight egress queues 308 respectively corresponding toones of the eight packet priorities. In operation, when the portextender device 300 receives a packet from a central switching device,the forwarding processor 305 of the port extender device 300 determines,based on a header of the packet, a particular port 302 to which thepacket is to be forwarded and a particular egress queue 308, of a set310 of egress queues 308 corresponding to the particular port 302, inwhich to place the packet. The packet is then placed in the egress queue308 for subsequent transmission of the packet via the port 302, in anembodiment.

In an embodiment, the port extender device 300 includes a queuescheduler 309 configured to schedule transmission of packets from theegress queues 308. The queue scheduler 309 services the egress queues308, corresponding to a particular front port 302 of the port extenderdevice 300 according to a suitable arbitration scheme, in variousembodiments. In some embodiments, the port extender device 300 omits thequeue scheduler 309, and instead relies on scheduling implemented by acentral switch device to which the port extender device 300 is coupled.

The flow control engine 307 manages traffic in the port extender device300 to prevent overflow in the egress queues 308, in an embodiment.Congestion in the egress queues 308 results, for example, when the rateat which packets are received by the port extender device 300 is higherthan the rate at which the packets can be transmitted from the portextender device 300, in an embodiment. As another example, congestion inan egress queue 308 corresponding to a port 302 occurs when the portextender device 300 pauses transmission of packets from the egress queue308 in response to a flow control message that the port extender device300 receives from a downstream device coupled to the port 302, in anembodiment. In an embodiment, the flow control engine 307 implementschannelized flow control to control transmission of packets from acentral switching device coupled to the port extender device 300destined to particular ones of the egress queues 308 of the portextender device 300. The channelized flow control implemented by theflow control engine 307 prevents fate sharing between egress queues 308in the port extender device 300, or blocking transmission of packetsdirected to non-congested queues 308 due to congestion in other ones ofthe queues 308, in at least some embodiments.

In an embodiment, to implement channelized flow control, the flowcontrol engine 307 generally operates according to a first flow controlprotocol that supports a relatively large number of virtual channelsbetween the port extender device 300 and the central switching device towhich the port extender device 300 is coupled. In an embodiment, thefirst flow control protocol supports a greater number of channels thanthe number of ports 302 of the port extended device 300 and/or thenumber of priorities supported by the port extender device 300. In anembodiment, the first flow control protocol corresponds to astandardized flow control protocol, such as the IEEE 802.1Qau congestionnotification message (CNM) flow control protocol, that supports agreater number of channels than the number of ports 302 of the portextended device 300 and/or the number of priorities supported by theport extender device 300. In another embodiment, the first flow controlprotocol does not correspond to a standardized flow control protocol.

In operation, the flow control engine 307 detects congestion in theegress queues 308, and generates congestion notification messages thatindicate detected congestion in the egress queues 308, in an embodiment.In an embodiment, the flow control engine 307 is configured to detectlevel of an egress queue 308 each time a packet is enqueued in theegress queue 308, and to generate congestion notification messages basedon the measurement of the level of the egress queue 308. For example, inan embodiment, the flow control engine 307 generates a congestionnotification message if the measured level of the queue exceeds apredetermined threshold. In another embodiment, a probability with whichthe flow control processor generates a congestion notification messagedepends on (e.g., is proportional to) the measured fill level of thequeue. In an embodiment, a congestion notification message generated bythe flow control engine 307 includes information that identified theparticular egress queue 308 for which the congestion notificationmessage is generated. For example, the congestion notification messageincludes a tag, such as a distributed switching architecture (DSA) tag,that identifies the port 302 to which the egress queue 308 corresponds,and a queue identifier that identifies the priority level to which thequeue 308 corresponds. In this embodiment, the DSA tag identifies theset 310 of which the particular egress queue 308 is a part, and thequeue identifier identifies the priority and, accordingly, theparticular egress queue 308 within the identified set 310.

The congestion notification message generated by the flow control engine307 is transmitted via the port 304 to the central switching devicecoupled to the port 304, in an embodiment. In an embodiment in which theport extender device 300 is coupled to multiple central switchingdevices, such as in the switching system of FIG. 2, the congestionnotification message generated by the flow control engine 307 istransmitted to the particular one of the multiple central switchingdevices that transmitted the packet based on which the congestionnotification message was generated by the flow control engine 307. Inanother embodiment in which the port extender device 300 is coupled tomultiple central switching devices, the congestion notification messagegenerated by the flow control engine 310 is transmitted to each of themultiple central switching devices. In an embodiment, a centralswitching device that receives a congestion notification message fromthe port extender device 300 identifies, based on information in thecongestion notification message, an egress queue 308 to which thecongestion notification message corresponds, and pauses transmission ofpackets from an egress queue, in the central switching device,corresponding the identified egress queue 308 of the port extenderdevice 300.

In an embodiment, the port extender device 300 also includes a coarseflow control engine 320. The coarse flow control engine 320 isconfigured to generate a block flow control message and to transmit theblock flow control message to a central switching device to temporallyblock transmission of all packets to the port extender device 300, ortransmission of all packets corresponding to certain priorities to theport extender device 300. In an embodiment, the coarse flow controlengine 320 monitors overall buffer space collectively available foregress queues 308, and triggers the flow control message when theoverall buffer space collectively available for egress queues 308 isnearly used up by the egress queues 308.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a central switching device 400, accordingto an embodiment. In an embodiment, the central switching device 400corresponds to the central switching device 104 of FIG. 1 or eachcentral switching device 204 of FIG. 2. The central switching device 400is configured to be coupled to at least one port extender device, suchas the port extender device 300 of FIG. 3, in an embodiment. The centralswitching device 400 includes a set of egress queues 408 correspondingto a downlink port 404 of the central switching device 400. Respectiveegress queues 408 correspond to respective egress queues of a portextender device coupled to the downlink port 404 of the centralswitching device, in an embodiment. For example, in an embodiment, theport extender device 300 of FIG. 3 is coupled to the downlink port 404of the central switching device 400, and respective egress queues 408correspond to respective egress queues 308 of the port extender device300 of FIG. 3. Although only one set of egress queues 408 and only onedownlink port 404 are illustrated in FIG. 4, the central switchingdevice 400 typically includes multiple sets of egress queues 408 andmultiple downlink ports 404, in some embodiments.

In an embodiment, the central switching device 400 includes a packetprocessor 410 coupled to a forwarding database 412, a multicast packetreplication engine 414, a congestion avoidance engine 416, a queuescheduler 418, a flow control engine 420, and a coarse flow controlengine 422. Although the multicast packet replication engine 414, thecongestion avoidance engine 416, the queue scheduler 418, the flowcontrol engine 420, and the global flow control engine 422 areillustrated in FIG. 4 as being separate from the packet processor 410,at least some of these engines are included in the packet processor 410,in some embodiments. For example, the multicast packet replicationengine 414 and the congestion avoidance engine 416 are included in thepacket processor 410, in an embodiment.

The packet processor 410 is configured to process packets received bythe central switching device from at least one port extender devicecoupled to the central switching device 400, in an embodiment.Processing of a packet by the packet processor 410, in an embodiment,includes at least determining one or more front ports, of the at leastone port extender device, to which to forward the packet. In anembodiment, processing of the packet by the packet processor 410 alsoincludes determining a flow to which the packet corresponds, determininga priority of the flow to which the packet corresponds, determiningwhether the packet is a unicast packet or a multicast packet, performingpacket replication if the packet is a multicast packet, determiningwhether the packet should be dropped, determining whether the packetshould be mirrored for further analysis, etc. In various embodiments,the central switching device 400 utilizes virtual ports and/or extendedports (e-ports) to facilitate processing of packets received viaphysical front ports of the least one port extender device coupled tothe central switching device 400. For example, the central switchingdevice 400 assigns virtual ports and/or e-ports to packets to identifyphysical front ports of the at least one port extender device via whichthe packets are received and/or via which the packets are to betransmitted, and processing the packets using the assigned virtual portsand/or e-ports. Various techniques used by the central switching device400, in some embodiments, for processing packets received via frontphysical ports of the at least one extender device are described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/151,927, entitled “Centralized PacketProcessor for a Network,” filed on Jun. 2, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No.8,804,733 and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/151,948, entitled“Interface Mapping in a Centralized Packet Processor for a Network,”filed on Jun. 2, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,042,405, both of which arehereby incorporated by reference herein, in their entireties.

Packets processed by the packet processor 410 are placed in egressqueues 408. In an embodiment, the packet processor 410 determines aparticular egress queue, or particular egress queues, in which to placea packet based on the determination of the one or more front ports 110to which the packet is to be forwarded and the priority of the flow towhich the packet corresponds, in an embodiment. The multicast packetreplication engine 414 replicates multicast packets to generaterespective copies of the multicast packets for transmission viarespective front ports of the at least one port extender device, in anembodiment. The congestion avoidance engine 416 implements a suitablecongestion avoidance technique (e.g., tail drop) to prevent overflow inthe egress queues 408, in an embodiment. For example, the congestionavoidance engine 416 detects fill level of the egress queues 408 and,when a fill level of an egress queue 408 is nearing a maximum fill levelfor the egress queue 408, the congestion avoidance engine 416 drops oneor more packets destined to the egress queue 408 to prevent overflow inthe egress queue 408, in an embodiment.

The queue scheduler 418 is configured to schedule transmission ofpackets from the egress queues 408, in an embodiment. The queuescheduler 418 services the egress queues 408, corresponding to aparticular front of the port extender device coupled to the port 404, ina strict priority and/or in a weighted round robin (WRR) priority and/orin shaped deficit weighted round robin (SDWRR), in various embodiments.The flow control engine 420 is configured to receive flow controlmessages provided by the at least one port extender device coupled tothe central switching device 100, and in response to the flow controlmessage control transmission of packets from particular egress queues408 to prevent overflow of corresponding egress queues in the at leastone port extender device, in an embodiment. In an embodiment, when theflow control engine 420 receive a flow control message provided by aport extender device, the flow control message determines, based oninformation included in the flow control message, to which channel and,accordingly, to which particular egress queue 408 the flow controlmessage corresponds. For example, the flow control engine 420 determinesthe channel based on (ii) information indicative of a physical frontport of the port extender device and (ii) information indicative of apriority of the congested egress queue corresponding to the physicalfront port in the port extender device included in the flow controlmessage. In an embodiment, the flow control engine 420 determines thechannel based on a QCN congestion point identifier (CPID) and a DSA tagincluded in the flow control message. In another embodiment, the flowcontrol message includes other suitable information, such as standardEthernet packet information that signals a channel to which the flowcontrol message corresponds, and the flow control engine 420 determinesthe channel additionally or alternatively based on the other suitableinformation. For example, in an embodiment, the flow control messageincludes an Ethernet packet virtual local area network (VALN) identifier(VID), and the flow control engine 420 determines the channel based atleast in part on the VID. As another example, the flow control engine420 includes an E-tag as defined by the IEEE 802.1BR protocol, and theflow control engine 420 determines the channel based at least in part onthe E-tag.

Further, in an embodiment, the flow control engine 420 determines, basedon a queue fill level indication included the flow control message, anamount of time for which to pause transmission of packets from theparticular egress queue 408. In another embodiment, the flow controlmessage indicates a queue congestion level, rather than a queue filllevel, of the congested queue, and the flow control engine 420determines pause time based on the queue congestion level indicated inthe flow control message. For example, in an embodiment, the flowcontrol message includes a quantized feedback (qFb) value determined asdefined in the IEEE 802.1Qau protocol, and the flow control engine 420determines pause time based on the qFb value included in the flowcontrol message. In an embodiment, to determine pause time, the flowcontrol engine 420 access a pause time mapping table 424 to map a queuefill level value, or a queue congestion level, indicated in the flowcontrol message to a pause time value that indicates an amount of timefor which to pause transmission of packets from the particular egressqueue 408. The flow control engine 420 causes transmission of packetsfrom the particular queue 408 for the determined amount of time, in anembodiment.

The flow control engine 420 is also configured to monitor fill levels ofthe egress queues 408, and to selectively generate flow control messagesindicating particular egress queues 408 that are nearing overflow, in anembodiment. The flow control engine 420 is configured to cause a flowcontrol message corresponding to a particular egress queue 408 to betransmitted to the at least one port extender device so that flowcontrol can be propagated to one or more network devices downstream fromthe at least one port extender device. In an embodiment, the flowcontrol engine 420 generates a flow control message that indicates aparticular physical front port, in a particular port extender device, towhich the congested egress queue 408 corresponds, and cause the flowcontrol message to be transmitted to the particular port extenderdevice. The indicated physical front port is the source port of thepacket based on which the flow control message was triggered, in anembodiment. The particular port extender device receives the flowcontrol message and propagates flow control via the physical front portindicated in the flow control message, to a downstream device coupled tothe physical front port indicated in the flow control message, in anembodiment. Propagation of the flow control to the downstream networkdevices instructs the downstream network device to pause transmission ofpackets (or packets corresponding to certain priorities) to the at leastone port extender device, enabling lossless transmission of packets, inat least some embodiments.

In an embodiment, the coarse flow control engine 422 of the centralswitching device 400 operates similarly to the global flow control 320of the port extender device 300 as described above with reference toFIG. 3. The coarse flow control engine 422 is configured to generate ablock flow control message and to transmit the block flow controlmessage to a port extender device to temporally block transmission ofall packets from the port extender device, or transmission of packetscorresponding to certain priorities from port extender device 300. In anembodiment, the port extender device propagates flow control to one ormore network devices downstream from the at least one port extenderdevice temporally block transmission, from the one or more downstreamnetwork devices, of all packets to the at least one port extenderdevice, or transmission of all packets corresponding to certainpriorities to the at least one port extender device. In an embodiment,the global flow control engine 422 monitors overall buffer spacecollectively available for egress queues 408, and triggers the flowcontrol message when the overall buffer space collectively available foregress queues 408 is nearly used up by the egress queues 408.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method 500 for controllingtransmission of packets transmitted to a port extender device, accordingto an embodiment. In an embodiment, the method 500 is implemented by aport extender device. For example, each of one or more of the portextender devices 102 of FIG. 1 is configured to implement the method500, in an embodiment. As another example, each of one or more of theport extender devices 202 of FIG. 2 is configured to implement themethod 500. In another embodiment, the method 500 is implemented by aport extender device different from the port extender devices 102 ofFIG. 1 and the port extender devices 202 of FIG. 2. Similarly, a portextender device 102 of FIG. 1 or a port extender device 202 of FIG. 2implements a method different from the method 500 to controltransmission of packets to egress queue of the port extender device, insome embodiments. It is noted that while the method 500 is describedherein in the context of controlling transmission of packets transmittedto a port extender device, the method 500 is used for flow controlgenerally by network devices (e.g., switches, routers, etc.) other thana port extender device and in general network architectures other than aswitching system that includes central switching device(s) and portextender device(s), in some embodiments.

At block 502, the port extender device receives packets processed by acentral switching device. At block 504, the port extender deviceenqueues the packets received at block 502 in egress queues of the portextender device. In an embodiment, the port extender device determines,based on information (e.g., one or more tags) included in a header of apacket, a particular front port of the port extender device via whichthe packet is to be transmitted from the port extender device and/or anegress queue into which the packet is to be placed for subsequenttransmission via the particular front of the port extender device.

At block 506, a flow control message is generated. In an embodiment, theflow control message generated a block 506 indicates congestion in aparticular egress queue of the port extender device. In an embodiment,the flow control message generated at block 506 includes informationthat identifies the particular congested egress queue in the portextender device.

At block 508, the flow control message generated a block 506 istransmitted to the central switching device to control transmission ofpackets from the central switching device destined to the particularegress queue in the port extender device. In an embodiment, the flowcontrol message generated at block 506 is transmitted to the centralswitching device to instruct the central switching device to pausetransmission of packets destined to the particular egress queue in theport extender device.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method 600 for controllingtransmission of packets destined to egress queues of a port extenderdevice, according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, the method 600 isimplemented by a central switching device. For example, the centralswitching device 104 of FIG. 1 is configured to implement the method 600to control transmission of packets destined to egress queues of the portextender devices 102. As another example, each of central switchingdevices 204 of FIG. 2 is configured to implement the method 600 tocontrol transmission of packets destined to egress queues of the portextender devices 202. In another embodiment, the method 600 isimplemented by a central switching device different from the centralswitching device 104 of FIG. 1 or a central switching device 204 of FIG.2 to control transmission of packets destined to egress queues of a portextender device. Similarly, the central switching device 104 of FIG. 1or a central switching device 204 of FIG. 2 implements a methoddifferent from the method 600 to control transmission of packetsdestined to egress queues of a port extender device, in someembodiments.

At block 602, the central switching device receives packets from atleast one port extender device. In an embodiment, the packets receivedat block 602 had been received by the at least one port extender devicevia ones of a plurality of front ports of the at least one port extenderdevice.

At block 604, the packets received by the central switching device atblock 602 are processed. Processing a packet at block 604 includesdetermining one or more front ports, of the at least one port extenderdevice, to which to forward the packet.

At block 606, the packets processed at block 604 are enqueued in egressqueues of the central switching device. In an embodiment, the egressqueues of the central switching device correspond to egress queues in atleast one port extender device associated with front ports of the atleast one port extender device. In an embodiment, the egress queues ofthe central switching device correspond to front ports of the at leastone port extender device and priorities supported by the front ports ofthe port extender device. In an embodiment, the egress queues of thecentral switching device correspond to egress queues in the at least oneport extender device. The egress queues in the at least one portextender device are associated with front ports of the at least one portextender device, in an embodiment.

At block 608, responsive to a flow control message received from a portextender device, the central switching device controls transmission ofpackets from an egress queue of the central switching device to preventoverflow of a corresponding queue in the port extender device. Forexample, in an embodiment, responsive to the flow control messagereceived from the port extender device, the central switching devicepauses transmission of packets from a particular egress queue of thecentral switching device to prevent overflow of a corresponding egressqueue in the port extender device. For example, a flow control engine,such as the flow control engine 420 of FIG. 4, of the central switchingdevice pauses transmission of packets from a particular egress queue ofthe central switching device to prevent overflow of a correspondingegress queue in the port extender device, in the manner described abovewith respect to FIG. 4, in an embodiment. In other embodiment, othersuitable flow control engines and/or other suitable pause mechanisms areutilized.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example method 700 for controllingtransmission of packets in particular virtual channels of a plurality ofvirtual channels between a central switching device and a port extenderdevice, according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, the method 700 isimplemented by a port extender device. For example, each of one or moreof the port extender devices 102 of FIG. 1 is configured to implementthe method 700, in an embodiment. As another example, each of one ormore of the port extender devices 202 of FIG. 2 is configured toimplement the method 700, in an embodiment. In another embodiment, themethod 700 is implemented by a port extender device different from theport extender devices 102 of FIG. 1 and the port extender devices 202 ofFIG. 2. Similarly, a port extender device 102 of FIG. 1 or a portextender device 202 of FIG. 2 implements a method different from themethod 700 to control transmission of packets in particular virtualchannels of a plurality of virtual channels between a central switchingdevice and the port extender device.

At block 702, the port extender device receives a first flow controlmessage from a central switching device. The first flow control messageindicates congestion in a particular virtual channel of the plurality ofvirtual channels from the central switching device to the port extenderdevice. The first flow control message conforms to a first flow controlprotocol that supports a first number of virtual channels, in anembodiment. For example, the first flow control message conforms to aquantized congestion notification protocol that supports a relativelylarge number of virtual channels, in an embodiment.

At block 704, the port extender device generates a second flow controlmessage based on the first flow control message received at block 702.The second flow control message conforms to a second flow controlprotocol different from the first flow control protocol. In anembodiment, the second flow control protocol supports a second number ofchannels smaller than the first number of channels supported by thefirst flow control protocol. For example, the second flow controlmessage conforms to a priority flow control (PFC) protocol that supportsa relatively small number of virtual channels corresponding to a numberof priorities supported by the port extender device, in an embodiment.

At block 706, the port extender device transmits the second flow controlmessage generated at block 704 via one or more front ports of the portextender device to one or more network devices coupled to the one ormore front ports of the port extender device. In an embodiment, thesecond flow control message serves to control transmission of packets,from the one or more network devices, destined to a particular virtualchannel between the central switching device and the port extenderdevice. For example, in an embodiment, the second flow control messageinstructs the one or more network devices to pause transmission ofpackets of a particular priority to the port extender device.

In an embodiment, a port extender device comprises: a plurality of frontports configured to interface with a network; at least one uplink portfor interfacing with a central switch device; a forwarding processorconfigured to forward packets, received via ones of the front ports, toa central switch device for processing of the packet by the centralswitch device; a plurality of egress queues for queueing packetsprocessed by the central switch device and to be transmitted via thefront ports of the port extender device, respective egress queues, amongthe plurality of egress queues, having a queue depth that is less than aqueue depth of corresponding respective egress queues in the centralswitching device; and a flow control processor configured to selectivelygenerate a flow control message indicative of congestion in a particularegress queue among the plurality of egress queues of the port extenderdevice; and cause the flow control message to be transmitted to thecentral switch device to control transmission of packets from thecentral switching device to the particular egress queue of the portextender device.

In other embodiments, the port extender device further comprises anysuitable combination of one or more of the following features.

The forwarding processor is configured to forward packets to the centralswitch device by causing the packets to be transmitted via the at leastone uplink link to the central switch device.

The flow control processor is configured to cause the flow controlmessage to be transmitted to the central switch device in-band using theat least one uplink link via which the packets are transmitted to thecentral switch.

The flow control processor is configured to detect a fill level of theparticular egress queue when a new packet is placed in the particularegress queue, and selectively generate the flow control message toinclude an indication of the fill level of the particular egress queue.

The flow control processor is configured to detect a congestion level ofthe particular egress queue when a new packet is placed in theparticular egress queue, and selectively generate the flow controlmessage to include an indication of the congestion level of theparticular egress queue.

The plurality of egress queues includes multiple subsets of multipleegress queues, respective subsets of multiple egress queuescorresponding to respective front ports of the plurality of front ports,and wherein respective egress queues defining a subset of multipleegress queues correspond to respective packet priorities supported bythe port extender device.

The flow control processor is configured to generate the flow controlmessage to include (i) information indicative of a front port to whichthe particular egress queue corresponds and (ii) information indicativeof a particular packet priority to which the particular egress queuecorresponds.

In another embodiment, a method for controlling transmission of packetsto a port extender device includes: receiving, at the port extenderdevice from a central switching device, packets that are processed bythe central switching device, the packets being for transmission viaones of front ports disposed in the port extender device; queueing, inthe port extender device, the packets received from the centralswitching device in ones of a plurality of egress queues of the portextender device, respective one or more egress queues corresponding torespective front ports of the port extender device, respective egressqueues among the plurality of egress queues having a queue depth that isless than a queue depth of corresponding respective egress queues in thecentral switching device; selectively generating a flow control messageindicative of congestion in a particular egress queue of the pluralityof egress queues of the port extender device; and causing the flowcontrol message to be transmitted to the central switch device tocontrol transmission of packets form the central switching device to theparticular egress queue of the port extender device.

In other embodiments, the method includes any suitable combination ofone or more of the following features.

The method further includes receiving, by the port extender device,packets via the front ports of the port extender device, and forwarding,by a forwarding processor of the port extender device via one or moreuplink ports of the port extender device, the received packets to thecentral switching device for processing of the packets by the centralswitching device.

Causing the flow control message to be transmitted to the central switchdevice comprises causing the flow control message to be transmitted tothe central switch device in-band via the at least one uplink port ofthe port extender device.

The method further includes detecting a fill level of the particularegress queue when a new packet is placed in the particular egress queue,and selectively generating the flow control message to include anindication of the fill level of the particular egress queue.

The method further includes detecting a congestion level of theparticular egress queue when a new packet is placed in the particularegress queue, and selectively generating the flow control message toinclude an indication of the congestion level of the particular egressqueue.

The plurality of egress queues includes multiple subsets of egressqueues, respective subsets of multiple egress queues corresponding torespective front ports of the plurality of front ports, and whereinrespective egress queues defining a subset of multiple egress queuescorrespond to respective packet priorities supported by the portextender device.

Generating the flow control message comprises generating the flowcontrol message to include (i) information indicative of a front port towhich the particular egress queue corresponds and (ii) informationindicative of a particular packet priority to which the particularegress queue corresponds.

In yet another embodiment, a central switching device comprises: atleast one port configured to interface with a port extender device, theport extender device comprising a plurality of front ports forinterfacing with a network; a packet processor configured to processpackets received from the at least one port extender device, the packetshaving been received by the at least one port extender device via onesof the plurality of front ports of the at least one port extenderdevice; a plurality of egress queues for storing processed packets to beforwarded to the at least one port extender device for transmission ofthe processed packets via ones of the plurality of front ports of the atleast one port extender device, respective ones of the egress queuehaving a queue depth that is greater than a queue depth of correspondingrespective egress queues disposed in the port extender device; and aflow control processor configured to, responsively to a flow controlmessage received from the port extender device, control transmission ofpackets to the port extender device from a particular one of the egressqueues of the central switch device to prevent overflow of an egressqueue of the port extender device corresponding to the particular one ofthe egress queues of the central switching device.

In other embodiments, the network device further comprises any suitablecombination of one or more of the following features.

The flow control message indicates a fill level of the particular egressqueue in the port extender device, and wherein the flow controlprocessor is configured to, responsively to the flow control message,pause transmission of packets from the egress queue in the centralswitching device corresponding to the particular egress queue in theport extender device.

The flow control processor is further configured to, based on the filllevel indicated in the flow control message, determine an amount of timefor which to pause transmission of packets from the corresponding egressqueue in the central switching device.

In still another embodiment, a method for controlling transmission ofpackets from a central switching device includes: receiving, by thecentral switch device from at least one port extender device coupled tothe central switching device, packets received by the at least one portextender device via ones of a plurality of front ports of the at leastone port extender device; processing, by a packet processor of thecentral switching device, the packets received from the at least oneport extender device; queueing, by the packet processor, the processedpackets in a plurality of egress queues of the central switching device,the egress queues of egress queues of the central switchingcorresponding to egress queues of the at least one port extender device,respective ones of the egress queue of the central switching devicehaving a queue depth that is greater than a queue depth of correspondingrespective egress queues of the at least one port extender device; andcontrolling, by a flow control processor of the central switching deviceresponsively to a flow control message received from a port extenderdevice of the at least one port extender devices, transmission ofpackets from a particular one of the egress queues of the central switchdevice to prevent overflow of a corresponding egress queue in the portextender device.

In other embodiments, the method includes any suitable combination ofone or more of the following features.

The flow control message indicates a fill level of the particular egressqueue in the port extender device, and wherein controlling, responsivelyto the flow control message, transmission of packets from the egressqueue in the central switching device corresponding to the particularegress queue in the port extender device comprises pausing thetransmission of packets from the egress queue in the central switchingdevice corresponding to the particular egress queue in the port extenderdevice.

The method further includes, based on the fill level indicated in theflow control message, determining an amount of time for which to pausetransmission of packets from the corresponding egress queue in thecentral switching device.

In yet another embodiment, a port extender device comprises: a pluralityof front ports for interfacing with a network; at least one uplink portfor interfacing with a central switch device; a forwarding processorconfigured to forward packets, received via ones of the front ports, toa central switch device for processing of the packet by the centralswitch device; and a flow control processor configured to receive afirst flow control message from the central switching device, the firstflow control message indicating congestion in a particular virtualchannel of a plurality of virtual channels between the central switchingdevice and the port extender device, the first flow control messagecorresponding to a first flow control protocol that supports a firstnumber of channels, generate, based on the first flow control message, asecond flow control message conforming to a second flow controlprotocol, the second flow control protocol supporting a second number ofchannels smaller than the first number of channels, and transmit thesecond flow control message via one or more front ports of the pluralityof front ports to control transmission of packets, corresponding to theparticular virtual channel, to the port extender device.

In other embodiments, the port extender device further includes anysuitable combination of one or more of the following features.

Respective subsets of virtual channels correspond to respective frontports of the port extender device.

The particular virtual channel is defined by an egress queue in the portextender device and a corresponding egress queue in the centralswitching device.

In still another embodiment, a method of flow control includes:receiving, by a flow control engine of a port extender device, a firstflow control message from a central switching device, the first flowcontrol message indicating congestion in a particular virtual channel ofa plurality of virtual channels between the central switching device andthe port extender device, the first flow control message correspondingto a first flow control protocol that supports a first number ofchannels; generating, by the flow control engine, based on the firstflow control message, a second flow control message conforming to asecond flow control protocol, the second flow control protocolsupporting a second number of channels smaller than the first number ofchannels; and causing, by the flow control engine, the second flowcontrol message to be transmitted via one or more front port of theplurality of front ports to control transmission of packets,corresponding to the particular virtual channel, to the port extenderdevice.

In other embodiments, the method includes any suitable combination ofone or more of the following features.

Respective subsets of virtual channels correspond to respective frontports of the port extender device.

The particular virtual channel is defined by an egress queue in the portextender device and a corresponding egress queue in the centralswitching device.

In still another embodiment, a switching system comprises: one or moreport extender devices, respective port extender devices comprising aplurality of front ports interfacing to a computer network, and aplurality of first queues, respective subsets of the plurality of firstqueues corresponding to respective front ports of the plurality of frontports; and a switching device coupled to the at least one port extenderdevice and configured to process packets received via ones of the frontports of the port extender device at least to determine other ones ofthe front ports of a first port extender device, or ones of front portsof a second port extender device, via which to transmit the packets, theswitching device comprising a plurality of second queues, respectivesecond queues of the switching device corresponding to respective firstqueues of the port extender device, wherein a buffer depth of the secondqueues at the switching device is greater than a buffer of correspondingfirst queues at the port extender device; and a flow control processorconfigured to selectively control a transmission of packets from ones ofthe second queues of the switching device to corresponding ones of thefirst queues of the one or more port extender devices to prevent anoverflow of packets at the corresponding first queues of the portextender device.

In other embodiments, the switching system further comprises anysuitable combination of one or more of the following features.

The flow control processor is configured to control transmission ofpackets from ones of the second queues of the switching device tocorresponding ones of the first queues of the at least one port extenderdevice in response to receiving in-band flow control messages from theport extender device.

The flow control processor is configured to control transmission ofpackets from a particular one of the second queues of the switchingdevice to a corresponding particular one of the first queues of the oneor more port extender devices by temporarily pausing transmission ofpackets directed to the particular one of the first queues of the one ormore port extender devices.

At least some of the various blocks, operations, and techniquesdescribed above may be implemented utilizing hardware, a processorexecuting firmware instructions, a processor executing softwareinstructions, or any combination thereof.

When implemented in hardware, the hardware may comprise one or more ofdiscrete components, an integrated circuit, an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), etc.

When implemented utilizing a processor executing software or firmwareinstructions, the software or firmware instructions may be stored in anycomputer readable memory such as on a magnetic disk, an optical disk, orother storage medium, in a RAM or ROM or flash memory, processor, harddisk drive, optical disk drive, tape drive, etc. The software orfirmware instructions may include machine readable instructions that,when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform various acts.

While the present invention has been described with reference tospecific examples, which are intended to be illustrative only and not tobe limiting of the invention, changes, additions and/or deletions may bemade to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope ofthe invention. For example, one or more portions of methods ortechniques described above may be performed in a different order (orconcurrently) and still achieve desirable results.

What is claimed is:
 1. A central switching device, comprising at leastone port configured to interface with at least one port extender device,the at least one port extender device comprising a plurality of frontports for interfacing with a network; a packet processor configured toprocess packets received from the at least one port extender device, thepackets having been received by the at least one port extender devicevia ones of the plurality of front ports of the at least one portextender device; a plurality of egress queues for storing processedpackets to be forwarded to the at least one port extender device fortransmission of the processed packets via ones of the plurality of frontports of the at least one port extender device, respective ones of theegress queue having a queue depth that is greater than a queue depth ofcorresponding respective egress queues disposed in the at least one portextender device; and a flow control processor configured to,responsively to a flow control message received from the at least oneport extender device, control transmission of packets from a particularone of the egress queues of the central switch device to preventoverflow of an egress queue of a first port extender device, among theat least one port extender device, corresponding to the particular oneof the egress queues of the central switching device.
 2. The centralswitching device of claim 1, wherein the flow control message indicatesa fill level of the particular egress queue in the first port extenderdevice, and wherein the flow control processor is configured to,responsively to the flow control message, pause transmission of packetsfrom the egress queue in the central switching device corresponding tothe particular egress queue in the first port extender device.
 3. Thecentral switching device of claim 2, wherein the flow control processoris further configured to, based on the fill level indicated in the flowcontrol message, determine an amount of time for which to pausetransmission of packets from the corresponding egress queue in thecentral switching device.
 4. The central switching device of claim 1,wherein the flow control processor is configured to receive the flowcontrol message from the first port extender device in-band via a portof the central switching device via which the first port extender devicetransmits packets to the central switching device.
 5. A method forcontrolling transmission of packets from a central switching device, themethod comprising receiving, by the central switch device from at leastone port extender device coupled to the central switching device,packets received by the at least one port extender device via ones of aplurality of front ports of the at least one port extender device;processing, by a packet processor of the central switching device, thepackets received from the at least one port extender device; queueing,by the packet processor, the processed packets in a plurality of egressqueues of the central switching device, the egress queues of egressqueues of the central switching corresponding to egress queues of the atleast one port extender device, respective ones of the egress queues ofthe central switching device having a queue depth that is greater than aqueue depth of corresponding respective egress queues of the at leastone port extender device; receiving a flow control message from a firstport extender device among the at least one port extender device; andcontrolling, by a flow control processor of the central switching deviceresponsively to the flow control message, transmission of packets from aparticular one of the egress queues of the central switch device toprevent overflow of a corresponding egress queue in the first portextender device.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the flow controlmessage indicates a fill level of the particular egress queue in thefirst port extender device, and wherein controlling, responsively to theflow control message, transmission of packets from the egress queue inthe central switching device corresponding to the particular egressqueue in the first port extender device comprises pausing thetransmission of packets from the egress queue in the central switchingdevice corresponding to the particular egress queue in the first portextender device.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising, based onthe fill level indicated in the flow control message, determining anamount of time for which to pause transmission of packets from thecorresponding egress queue in the central switching device.
 8. Themethod of claim 5, wherein receiving the flow control message comprisesreceiving the flow control message from the first port extender devicein-band via a port of the central switching device via which the firstport extender device transmits packets to the central switching device.9. A switching system, comprising at least one port extender device,comprising: a plurality of front ports interfacing to a computernetwork, and a plurality of first queues, respective subsets of theplurality of first queues corresponding to respective front ports of theplurality of front ports; and a switching device coupled to the at leastone port extender device and configured to process packets received viaones of the front ports of the at least one port extender device atleast to determine other ones of the front ports of the at least oneport extender device via which to transmit the packets, the switchingdevice comprising: a plurality of second queues, respective secondqueues of the switching device corresponding to respective first queuesof the at least one port extender device, wherein a buffer depth of thesecond queues at the switching device is greater than a buffer ofcorresponding first queues at the at least one port extender device, anda flow control processor configured to selectively control atransmission of packets from ones of the second queues of the switchingdevice to corresponding ones of the first queues of the at least oneport extender device to prevent an overflow of packets at thecorresponding first queues of the at least one port extender device. 10.The switching system of claim 9, wherein the flow control processor isconfigured to control transmission of packets from ones of the secondqueues of the switching device to corresponding ones of the first queuesof the at least one port extender device in response to receiving flowcontrol messages from the at least one port extender device.
 11. Theswitching system of claim 10, wherein the flow control processor isconfigured to receive the flow control messages from the at least oneport extender device in-band via ports of the central switching devicevia which the at least one port extender device transmits packets to thecentral switching device.
 12. The switching system of claim 10, whereineach of at least some of the flow control messages indicates arespective fill level of a respective first queue in the at least oneport extender device, and wherein the flow control processor isconfigured to, responsively to each of the at least some of the flowcontrol messages, pause transmission of packets from a respective secondqueue in the switching device corresponding to the respective firstqueue in the at least one port extender device.
 13. The switching systemof claim 12, wherein the flow control processor is further configuredto, based on the fill level indicated in the flow control message,determine an amount of time for which to pause transmission of packetsfrom the corresponding second queue in the switching device.
 14. Theswitching system of claim 9, wherein the flow control processor isconfigured to control transmission of packets from a particular one ofthe second queues of the switching device to a corresponding particularone of the first queues of the at least one port extender device bytemporarily pausing transmission of packets directed to the particularone of the first queues of the at least one port extender device. 15.The switching system of claim 9, wherein: the least one port extenderdevice further comprises at least one uplink port configured to transmitpackets to the switching device and receive packets from the switchingdevice; and the switching device further comprises at least one downlinkport coupled to the at least one uplink port of the at least one portextender device, the at least one downlink port configured to receivepackets from the at least one port extender device and transmit packetsto the at least one port extender device.
 16. The switching system ofclaim 15, wherein the least one port extender device further comprises:a forwarding processor configured to forward packets, received via onesof the front ports, to the switching device via the at least one uplinkport for processing of the packets by the switching device; and a flowcontrol processor configured to: receive a first flow control messagefrom the central switching device, the first flow control messageindicating congestion in a particular virtual channel of a plurality ofvirtual channels between the switching device and the at least one portextender device, the first flow control message corresponding to a firstflow control protocol that supports a first number of channels,generate, based on the first flow control message, a second flow controlmessage conforming to a second flow control protocol, the second flowcontrol protocol supporting a second number of channels smaller than thefirst number of channels, and transmit the second flow control messagevia one or more front port of the plurality of front ports to controltransmission of packets, corresponding to the particular virtualchannel, to the at least one port extender device.
 17. The switchingsystem of claim 16, wherein respective subsets of virtual channelscorrespond to respective front ports of the at least one port extenderdevice.
 18. The switching system of claim 16, wherein the particularvirtual channel is defined by a particular first queue in the at leastone port extender device and a corresponding second queue in theswitching device.